Waterford GAA Discussion Thread 2013- Mod Warning Post #1

KevIRL

PTH2009 wrote: »

I knew I'd be wrong about the result. Good win today and great to be back up ( I hope they don't change the structure is make it a 8 team div 1 etc).

Think I mite go for Galway next weekend lol.

Go away to fukk would ya. Mr negativity trying to come in with the emotional hedge
If we lost you'd be on here banging the 'told ya so' drum loud and clear

Ropaire

Delighted to be back in 1a, but we beat the crap out of a poor selection of teams that we were better than bar in the Limerick match to do it. When was the last time a team that went down from 1a didn't come straight back up?

Plenty of young lads blooded, serious change in the attitude of the team on the pitch in that there's more fight and resolve on show, and most encouragingly is there's no dour negative system being inflicted on players.

We've never had any fear of Galway and they'd be my pick on form to play in the quarters before today, fingers crossed we can keep the momentum we're building going and put in a good performance.

Is that game defo in Walsh Park?

tomwaterford

KevIRL wrote: »

Go away to fukk would ya. Mr negativity trying to come in with the emotional hedge
If we lost you'd be on here banging the 'told ya so' drum loud and clear

Being fair Galway are a step up from what we've played so far

TGV

So how did the full back do? I see many have doubts about him?

Ropaire

RTE website says the Galway game is in a Waterford venue; http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/hurling/2015/0322/688941-allianz-hurling-league-what-happens-next/

hurler on de ditch

KevIRL wrote: »

Go away to fukk would ya. Mr negativity trying to come in with the emotional hedge
If we lost you'd be on here banging the 'told ya so' drum loud and clear

well in all fairness ,alot of lads on here saying it will be this or that ,but in truth Wexford were **** absolutely horrendous ,,and we played a very defensive game ,with the usual overplaying everything,took years to get the ball into the forward line,this wont stand up come the championship and that is guaranteed,we topped and won our place back in div1a which is pleasing and a fair achievement,lets wait and see after the galway game ,

Deise Hurler

Well done to players and management on getting back to 1A so fast. Very impressed today with the workrate shown by all the Waterford players.
What a great move by management moving Brick up to the half forward line. Man of the match for me today.

KevIRL

Ropaire wrote: »

Delighted to be back in 1a, but we beat the crap out of a poor selection of teams that we were better than bar in the Limerick match to do it. When was the last time a team that went down from 1a didn't come straight back up?l?

Just on this. Only 2 home games, both against the weaker teams in the division. It would have been easier to just have the excuses ready but the mgmt team and players have got on with it. McGrath has made some difficult unpopular decisions but all in the long term interests of waterford hurling. He and his team would have been slated here and elsewhere v quickly if it didn't work but got to give them a lot of credit for the performances so far this year. Interesting to hear Liam sheedy single mcgrath out as the manager of the year so far on league Sunday tonight

HatchetMan7

I know some people here complaining about too much short passing but before Clare won the all ireland in 2013 they were trying to do the same thing. Some Clare supporters were also against this short passing but once they perfected it that year lt was effective and suited there small fast players. It takes time to get it right and at least there trying to do the right thing by getting the ball to the loose man. We had a two man full forward line so hitting it in first time ball didn't seem to work against the 3 Wexford defenders.

Ideally we would just play 15 against 15 in their proper positions but i think Derek McGrath is trying to protect our fullback line. I didn't see Coughlan clear any ball today but once the fullforward is kept quite his job is done. Wexford people are saying that Macdonald wasn't 100% fit so the jury is still out on him as a fullback. Next week might see him on Joe Canning (although i think he played centre forward against Dublin today) so that will tell us more. In fairness to him he hasn't done much wrong so far, hopfully he can keep it going and keep improving.

Hard to pick Man of the Match which is a good sign. Connors again was on top of his game one of the best corner backs in the country. Halfback line was dominant especially de Burca who was outstanding through out with some great catches. Barron was excellant today improving in every game, he is the type of midfielder that we have been missing. Someone who can run at the oppositions defence and draw fouls or create overlaps. Up front Brick had a great game along with Mahoney. Dillon and Dunford got some nice scores. O' halloran drew alot of fouls especially in the first half. Bennett was left a little isolated at times. With him still not able to train 100 % due to his hip problems he really needs accurate balls hit in infront of him. All in all a good display and nothing to fear against Galway, although they will be much tougher to beat than Wexford were.

TyrionPower

bruschi wrote: »

Well done on the win and promotion. Fully deserved, far the better side on the day. Wexfords hurling skills were very poor, and add to that they hadn't a clue how to handle Waterfords tactics meant an inevitable result. Some good young players on your team, really showed up when it counted

Wexford did look out of sorts today, I think waterford were taking 1B more seriously them the other contenders Wexford and Limerick, still if the goal chance at the end went in Wexford were still there at the end for a grandstand finish.

More to come for both teams over the next few years, hopefully contenders in the near future.

For Waterford Brick was excellent, he brings some many other players into the game, he wins hard ball and uses it intelligently. Philip o Mahony is a hard nail, he always seems to get out of tight spots and is solid out. And his brother is such a strong player and worker, lots of admiration for these two.
Tadhg de burca is very fast, looking good at centre back.
In fact with TdB, Gleeson, Dunford, o halloran and Jamie Barron we have a lot of pace now in the middle third.
Encouraging so far but next week is the litmus test, we don't know if we will be off the pace or if our form is real until then. Put up a good showing regardless of the result- no-one will look forward to facing us in the summer.

Fireball07

HatchetMan7 wrote: »

I know some people here complaining about too much short passing but before Clare won the all ireland in 2013 they were trying to do the same thing. Some Clare supporters were also against this short passing but once they perfected it that year lt was effective and suited there small fast players. It takes time to get it right and at least there trying to do the right thing by getting the ball to the loose man. We had a two man full forward line so hitting it in first time ball didn't seem to work against the 3 Wexford defenders.

There was a huge difference between the style they played when they lost against Cork in the Munster Championship in 2013, and even when they beat Waterford compared to how they played against Galway & Limerick, and again in the final. They mixed their game a lot better later in the year whereas before they were over-complicating things and leaving their forwards too isolated.

HatchetMan7

Fireball07 wrote: »

There was a huge difference between the style they played when they lost against Cork in the Munster Championship in 2013, and even when they beat Waterford compared to how they played against Galway & Limerick, and again in the final. They mixed their game a lot better later in the year whereas before they were over-complicating things and leaving their forwards too isolated.

I agree that its the mixing of both short passing and first time ball is key. It keeps the opposition guessing. But i think until Waterford go back to having a three man fullforward line then we will use the short passing more.

donnem33

tomwaterford wrote: »

Being fair Galway are a step up from what we've played so far

possibly so.. but theyre still in a fairly experimental mode. However, we are proving to be more difficult to beat and staying in games longer even when not playing great....but we have a terrible record against waterford and especially in walsh park!!

bruschi

Just to further expand on the game today from a Wexford POV.

I thoguht De Burca was your best player. Cleared a lot of ball, and disrupted a lot of play. Granted, he was marking what I would consider Wexfords weakest player in Daithi Waters who excelled at football for his county but switched over this year, but still De Burca had a job to do and he did it very well. Also Barron in midfield won a serious amount of what pundits like to call dirty ball. Someone already mentioned the rucks ye won, it was ridiculous how many times a cluster of players would be over the ball, and it was pretty much a Waterford man coming out with it every time. Showed 2 things about you, more desire to win the ball, and a skill and ability to pick it out of a crowd and get it moving again.

It's abundantly clear McGrath has a serious gameplan going, it may not be to everyones suiting being so outrageously defensive (at one stage in the first half, only one forward was outside of your own 45) and handpassing a lot, but you play to your strengths and talents a team has. No need to fire in long balls to small forwards if thats what you have to work with. Waterford hit Wexford on the break very well, switching play and finding players in plenty of space coming forward. Ye were far sharper too, lost count of how many times we were hooked or blocked with big wide awkward swings trying to hit the ball.

As for your full back situation, having the extra player back, Conor Mac not being 100% and Wexford never hitting it into him all contributed to a non event of a contest. I suppose after last year, he was a target, and it was clear that the gameplan to nullify hin worked, as any time he got near the ball, there was at least 2 Waterford players around him. At one stage in the second half Mac was on his own fighting for the ball against 5 Waterford defenders. Huge workrate from your lads.

Congrats again though, no question about who deserves to go up. Waterford had the other 3 of the top 4 away from home, and we lost to the top 2 at home, so that in itself says a lot. Getting back up this year I think was going to be easier this year than next, so its disappointing from our point of view to see such a lacklustre display that lacked any sort of gameplan, or reaction to the opponents gameplan and really poor hurling ability with silly mistakes.

Mountainlad

Interesting Bruschi mentioned it there, and I would agree we played a pretty deep defensive style today, negative if you want to call it that. Yet Ive seen a few saying its a positive that we're not playing the very hurling we played today. Might be tweaked a bit, and probably with a better confident team this year, but it begs the question is McGraths style only negative when we lose?

TGV

Well done Waterford!!! Was not able to see the game, just wondering if we have reduced the wide count in the last two games. Come the summer we will need every point possible. But... It is so nice to see the team winning away from home and from what I read to be in control of the game from the start. These players are used to winning (Harty cups, strong minors) and this winning mentality will get them a long way. I also like the attitude of most supports who are cautiously optimistic, (apart from the poster who always predict that we loose of course 😄) much easier for players and management to handle than over hype.

HatchetMan7

Wexford scored 4 goals against Limerick with their inside line being the most dangerous, so it was an obvious tactic to drop an extra man or two back to protect our full back line. Even though McGrath was saying that it wasn't important whether we were promoted or not, i think the way we played today suggested that the result was more important than the performance.

stumblingblock

Good to see some humble pie being eaten today. I’ll gladly take a bite myself, as I must admit I thought we’d struggle to get out of 1B at the start of the year. After last years performances I thought we we’d have to endure a couple years down there given that Limerick and Wexford looked to be a good bit ahead of us. But credit Derek McGrath & the lads for getting it together and producing the right results. I agree that Limerick hit the self-destruction button as they generally do when the expectations are high. But wouldn’t be as quick to discredit our performance today just because Wexford were disappointing. We were the hungrier team and never gave them a chance to get into the game. This is no bad Wexford team. I fancy them to bounce back later in the summer and we could even end up playing them in a league semi final again. As for Galway next weekend it will be a step up but one we are capable of making. We are have shown to be a higher quality than the 1b teams so we should be able to give them a good rattle at least

Cake Man

Well done to the lads, great to get back to 1A next year. Galway next week will be tough but they're notorious for being Jeckyl and Hyde and have a poor enough record in Walsk Park.
The winner is drawn to play Tipp or Offaly so we couldn't meet Wx again until a final if both sides got that far.

archieknox

stumblingblock wrote: »

Good to see some humble pie being eaten today. I’ll gladly take a bite myself, as I must admit I thought we’d struggle to get out of 1B at the start of the year. After last years performances I thought we we’d have to endure a couple years down there given that Limerick and Wexford looked to be a good bit ahead of us. But credit Derek McGrath & the lads for getting it together and producing the right results. I agree that Limerick hit the self-destruction button as they generally do when the expectations are high. But wouldn’t be as quick to discredit our performance today just because Wexford were disappointing. We were the hungrier team and never gave them a chance to get into the game. This is no bad Wexford team. I fancy them to bounce back later in the summer and we could even end up playing them in a league semi final again. As for Galway next weekend it will be a step up but one we are capable of making. We are have shown to be a higher quality than the 1b teams so we should be able to give them a good rattle at least

Well I for 1 had to eat so much humble pie I was wearing a bib last night! Credit the team and management on a professional performance yesterday. Having watched it again last night we were so much better than the scoreline suggested. Hungrier and our first touch was excellent not to mention the amount of dirty ball won throughout the pitch,it looked like Wexford weren't ready for this type of aggressive tactic. I can't recall them winning any of those type of contests.
Next Sunday will be a sterner test but one that shouldn't be feared. Galway don't ever do particularly well in Walsh Park. One negative on twitter was a local journalist nominating de burca and O Mahoney for all stars?!! We're in the month of march ffs! Put things in perspective its still national league hurling,review all these things in September when the real hurling is over.
On next Sunday will there be any changes? Could Maurice Shanahan start? Hard to imagine he will change the team from yesterday.

deiseach

It's a mistake, but I'm getting rather giddy after yesterday. Wexford found themselves in a spot of bother against Laois and duly rammed home a fistful of goals. I was dreading that possibility at half-time, yet not only did it not happen, it never even looked like happening. Talk of All Stars is obviously over-the-top, but feck it I think it can be forgiven in the context of watching de Búrca cruise along the backline like someone to the manor born. The thought of the next decade with him in the team...yes, it's a mistake. :P

Moving on to Galway, we have an okay record against them at home (P14 W8 L6) and at Walsh Park (P8 W5 L3). Where we have a poor record is in knockout matches (P8 W2 D1 L5 - replay was lost). They were all away at neutral venues though and in a time when the League was treated like the early stages of the Championship for Galway. Time to right some wrongs!

blueflame

Congrats to the team and management on achieving promotion straight back to 1A. Over the course of the league Waterford have been by far the best side on view in the Division for whatever reason. Four wins and one draw, having played away to our three strongest rivals, a points difference of +63 way ahead of any of the others, and apart from the Limerick game, were in total control throughout. On top of this (an not getting carried away) I believe we are still playing well within ourselves, and that many of our top talents are only finding their true form.

Looking critically at yesterdays game would see the following:

- Goalkeeper - solid out and assured one crazy short pass that could have got us in trouble.

- Full Back Line - Coughlan did what was asked of him and kept McDonald tied up. Could have got a silly yellow for tipping the helmet, not sure if it was intentional but looked at it again last night on recording and think it was. Needs to cut out silly frees and bookings. as a full back on a yellow is standing on a cliff edge. Corners backs solid out .

Half Back Line - tremendous performance from all three

Midfield - i expressed doubts about Barron before the game but take them all back - thought he was super yesterday, foraged all day was aggressive in his play and picked out some great passes. Just needs to speed up moving of the ball as got caught once or twice yesterday taking those extra steps. Moran had a bit of a mare starting off his touch was poor and fumbled a lot of ball - feel he is much more conformable and effective as a wing back.

Forwards - Brick was a sensation and it was noticeable about how many times the brought the ball down and we had players already moving waiting for the break. His work rate was phenomenal. O'Halloran thought worked really hard and while he did not score, he drew four frees in very scoreable positions. O'Mahoney had one or two blips on frees other than that had another solid game

Dunford by his own high standards was not as effective as normally but worked hard, Bennett tried really hard and was unlucky not to add to his tally, if he can keep getting game time and stay injury free this guy is a serious talent, lots of ability, faster than people give him credit for, aggressive and direct and has the confidence to go for goal without fear of missing. Dillon showed real glimpses of what he is a capable of took his scores with ease and looked for the intelligent ball majority of time, but again capable of much more.


Tactics - They worked yesterday, because we got on top early and once we kept our goal intact we were never in danger of loosing this game from an early stage, Wexford never looked like being able to rattle of four of five unanswered points to get them back into it. Still concerned about the level of defensive tactics employed and also feel we overplay the short game. . Countless times yesterday we hunted down the Wexford backs blocking and hooking them while they were looking for the short pass, and several times we intercepted short hand-passes. This is what good teams will do to us unless we vary our tactic. We have defenders capable so playing good direct ball, we just need to bring this more into our game. When opposition know you are going to try and play it short they will be willing to gamble more and take chances on intercepts if we vary it more and keep them guessing they will be less likely to do this. Beside this especially when we get Shane Bennett back we will have and abundance of really good options in our full forward line to give us a real goal threat especially if we can get good quick ball into the space in front of them.

Overall a job really well done, if we can improve on those few areas, be more positive and keep our top players fit, i think the future is really exciting.

PTH2009

Galway beat at home in 2013 and cost us the opportunity to go to the knockout stages of the league that year.

The one thing that struck me is the speed of the 1a games compared to the 1b. teams in 1a are much faster.

conditioned games

PTH2009 wrote: »

Galway beat at home in 2013 and cost us the opportunity to go to the knockout stages of the league that year.

The one thing that struck me is the speed of the 1a games compared to the 1b. teams in 1a are much faster.

You would expect the speed of hurling to be faster in the top division which should mean next Sunday's game at Walsh park will be an entertaining game. The most pleasing aspect from yesterday was the players attitude of fighting for every ball and doing their best. It looked like they wanted it more which is a huge improvement on last year. Also the younger players introduced to the county team are showing they can do well at this level. Fair play to the management for ingraining that competitive attitude in the team and making the hard decision to drop players with experience early on in the year as it now looks like it was the right decision to do.

The defensive aspect of the performance worked very well yesterday as it considerably limited Wexford's goal threat and didn't allow them to get a grip on the game. However going forward I would also like to see a more attacking game plan when the opportunity arises as relying on winning games by points alone is not as successful in the more open spaces of Thurles and Croke Park. But it is still a work in progress and a lot of positives can be seen so far this year so on wards and upwards.

hurler on de ditch

Mountainlad wrote: »

Interesting Bruschi mentioned it there, and I would agree we played a pretty deep defensive style today, negative if you want to call it that. Yet Ive seen a few saying its a positive that we're not playing the very hurling we played today. Might be tweaked a bit, and probably with a better confident team this year, but it begs the question is McGraths style only negative when we lose?

negative anyday ,but it helps when the opposition is ****

stumblingblock

hurler on de ditch wrote: »

negative anyday ,but it helps when the opposition is ****

What did you think of Brick on Sunday? You have been campaigning for his retirement all the year

fricatus

What happened Maurice that he was down for those few minutes? Whatever it was, it happened right in front of where we were sitting, but everyone was so taken with the action, nobody around us saw what happened.

TyrionPower

I though the brick played very well on Sunday but he was afforded loads of room and wasnt put under much pressure.

I remember one instance where he must have held onto the ball for about 20 seconds, turning this way and that whilst heading away from goals before popping a clever pass to Philip Mahony - it looked great but...

I think that managers of the big teams looking at that could specifically target him for turnovers - no way he will get that time and space against the bigger teams, he will be hunted down and a turnover could lead to the ball going over the blackspot five seconds later...

At least we have a chance against a 1A team next week to give a clearer picture of where we are

Deskjockey

fricatus wrote: »

What happened Maurice that he was down for those few minutes? Whatever it was, it happened right in front of where we were sitting, but everyone was so taken with the action, nobody around us saw what happened.

Happened right in front of me too but didn't see either. Thought the ref should have stopped play with a man lying prone on the ground

blueflame

Agree with that - especially considering that Jake Dillon played a cross field pass to Paudi Mahony who was within about 10 years of where Maurice was lying prostrate receiving attention. He never made any attempt to find out what was going on, and it could have been a serious injury